5:36 PM,
Sep. 11, 2013

Mike Ramsey and Mike Thornberg, owners of Old Shed Brewing Company, show off their Haystack IPA at Riverfest last weekend.

Written by

Lester Black
Leaf-Chronicle

At the peak of the summer, when it seemed like everyone was thirsty for another cold one, the beer industry got a dose of bad news: Even with the recession officially over, beer sales across the U.S. were down for the first of half 2013, by almost 3 percent, according to one consulting company.

But the beer industry is so divided right now, between the large breweries and the smaller craft breweries, that those industry-wide figures don't give an accurate depiction of beer's economics.

It's hard to imagine a better market for beer than the one we are currently in. There's just one stipulation: It ...